On a fine & warm Dunedin Saturday there was not a lot better than watching some cricket.
The Bottle-O Eagles were up against Uni-Grange at Tonga Park in their second last game of the season. After winning the toss skipper Tommy Clout decided to have a bowl. With Tommy & Mason Clarke taking the new ball – it was Mason who struck first in his second over when Max Makeham took a good catch. There was no further success as the first 10 overs ended at 38/1. However, with his first ball Patrick Arnold cleaned out the Grange batsman. UG then began a good recovery as the score passed 100 in the 22nd over. Dylan Fletcher came into the attack in the 24th over and had immediate success. Dylan took his second week in his next over to swing things back with UG at 109/4. As Dylan was ending his spell, he claimed his 3rd to finish with 3/27 from his spell. Mason came back for his second spell and in his second over claimed the 5th UG wicket to have the score at 174/6 in the 37th over. From the other end Patrick returned and immediately claimed the 7th UG scalp and then in the 43rd over claimed his third to reduce UG to 198/8. The following over Mason claimed his third before Tommy took the last wicket in the 46th over to have UG 214 all out.
The Eagles reply did not get off to a good start when we lost two wickets in the second over to be 6/2. This had Jamal Todd and Connor Macleod at the wicket to rebuild the innings – this they achieved in super quick time as Jamal raced to 100 off just 48 balls that included 13 fours and 5 six’s. When he was out for 102 the score was sitting at 176 in just the 20th over. Connor keep batting nicely until he was caught on the boundary for 69, off just 68 balls that included 8 fours and 4 six’s and the team score was at 190/4 any another 25 required. At this point the wheels somewhat fell off as we were reduced to 205/7 – but 300 game plus veteran Matt West keep his head as he played nicely and then finished things off with a bomb to be 18* as we achieved 218/7 with the first ball of the 28th over.
Just across on Tonga No 1 the turkeys where also up against Uni-Grange and after winning the toss skipper Ollie Ritchie also decided they would have a bowl. Luke Ritchie and Liam Fisher had the new ball and in the 5th over Luke had the first wicket. Freddy Birch came in at first change and took the second UG wicket in the 12th over to have the score at 55/2. The following over Luke Marsh got into the act securing the 4th wicket. Freddy kept the pressure on as he took the 4th wicket in the 16th over. Ollie then came into the attack and bowled a couple of nice overs before he struck in his third over to have UG at 107/5. He followed this up in the 33rd over with his second wicket and finished his spell with another to finish with 3/35 Off his 9 overs. Freddy and Luke Marsh returned for another spell and both claimed wickets to have UG 176/9. The last wicket took sometime to claim when Luke Marsh took the 10th wicket with the second last ball of the innings with the score at 200. Luke finishing with 3/24 off 8.5 overs. Freddy also had impressive figures finishing with 3/27 off his 9 overs.
The Turkey’s batsman never really settled after each getting a bit of a start and wickets fell regular and the score was sitting at 74/4. The one player who was securing freely was Lucky Singh but when he was out for 44, off just 41 balls, and the score was 85/5 – 200 seemed a long way off. The skipper joined Freddy and together they turned things around as they moved the score nicely to 187 when Ollie was out for a very supportive 34. Freddy scored freely from the other end and when the victory was secured in the 40th over he was sitting at 76* off just 73 balls that included six maximums.
The unbeaten Kilda were at Culling against GI Gators and as he does when winning the toss skipper Scotty McCormack decided to bowl first. GI got off to a good start putting 77 runs on the board before Devin Stapely claimed the first wicket. The skipper backed this up in the next over to secure the second wicket. Another partnership took the score to 117 in the 24th over when Chris Morris struck. The Kilda were under some pressure as GI kept things moving until at 180 when Scott Chapman claimed the 4th wicket. In the 35th over Craih Dougherty got his first with the score at 201. Then in the final over Ryan Wheeler scored wickets with the first two balls of the over as GI moved to 246/7 at the end of their 40 overs.
The reply got off to a steady start with Devin (12) first out at 24 and then at 44 Andy Arnold (13) was walking back to the pavilion. With the score at 80 Chris was out for 43 and quickly the scored was 87/5. This had Scott Chapman & Ryan Wheeler looking to get things back on track and they did this nicely moving the score to 167 in the 31st over when Ryan was out for 30, off 29 balls. This brought the skipper to the crease and the score kept ticking over as the Kilda moved to 215 when Scotty was out for a quick fire 33 off 22 balls in the 37th over. Chappie was still there as the last over started and 12 required for victory – unfortunately off the first ball his excellent innings of 73 (off 63 balls) came to and end. This had Michael Sumner being joined by Craig and they could only managed 3 runs off the next 3 balls – so nine required off two and the winning record looked likely to end, but Mike launched the second last ball up and over the boundary to keep the match alive. Whilst he could not repeat the effort off the last ball he did enough to enable the lads to scamper thru for 2 runs and claim a tie. A really exciting match was watched by a large crowd as the other team’s players arrived at the Club for the function.
It was great to see such a good crowd back at the Club. Club Captain Brett Hamilton ran a ‘Captains Challenge’ that was a lot of fun.